


The Dark Side of the Moon

by demiclar



Series: Destcember 2020 [11]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Destcember, Destcember Day 11, Sneaking around on the moon, Weird Hive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:14:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28022235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demiclar/pseuds/demiclar
Summary: Tessa descents into a Hive Temple on the moon to investigate a strange energy reading.
Series: Destcember 2020 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2037118
Collections: Fireteam Aadya





	The Dark Side of the Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! So this is still my destcember challenge but its going to be multiple parts. I'll post part two tomorrow, it'll be called Dragged Away.

Tessa had to take deep, calming breaths as she descended into the Hive temple. Her heart was already pounding as she snuck into the temple, but she needed to be calm. If she couldn’t be calm, she couldn’t be quiet, which would prove deadly in a place as Dark as this. She could practically feel it reaching out to her, its icy fingers seeming to brush her skin underneath her armor and clothes.

She was dressed in dark armor, her whole body covered in the scent of the Hive. She’d practically bathed in it before she’d descended into the temple, the reek now being the only thing she could smell. She still had yet to go nose-blind to it. Her armor was sparse, dressed in thick dark clothing, with only a few essential plates to protect her, a short dark cloak thrown over her, a mask drawn up above her nose. It was enough to keep her just a bit warm and almost completely quiet, and not much else. She couldn’t afford to have a helmet making noise with its vents, and she couldn’t afford to be slowed down by clunky armor. She’d have to rely on stealth as her defense.

She’d been gone from her ship for a few hours. She’d dropped down on the Earth side of the moon, then had stolen a pike and had tailed a gang of dregs crossing over to the dark side, riding with them for an hour or so until she’d neared the temple, ditching the pike and traveling on foot for another half hour until she’d reached the temple. Once at the temple, she’d picked around until she’d found a quiet back entrance, a tunnel that had been damaged enough to open up into one of the great cracks in the moon’s surface. From there, she’d slipped into the tunnel and had been working her way down for the past hour, sticking to the shadows and folding herself into corners and crevice’s when anything came near.

The only people who knew about her mission were Damian, Eris and Ikora. Eris had conferred with Ikora before sending her down here, and Damian had been told out of necessity, as he was waiting for her word that she’d finished her mission, or an alert from her Ghost that something had gone wrong. Being a member of Ikora’s Hidden, he’d also been able to help outfit her for the mission, providing her with a little breather—silent, but effective enough to filter the air for her to breathe clear, even miles below the surface. He’d also given her a set of contacts to allow her to see. The tunnels were completely dark to both Hive and human eyes, the Hive navigating the tunnels by smell alone. Tessa didn’t have time to learn to do the same even if she had the tools to smell as they did, so the contacts would do. They covered nearly the entire surface of her exposed eyes, acting like a giant pupil, they took all the light their surface area could absorb and funneled it into one direct point in her eye, allowing her vision to be clear and sharp, while also providing her with enough light to see by. They’d taken a bit of getting used to, but she was thankful for them all the same, creeping through the tunnels with at least some confidence as to where she was headed.

All she knew was that she had to go down. Instruments on the moon had been picking up strange readings from deep below the moon’s surface. Through scans they’d been able to narrow down the location to be within the tunnels connected to this temple, but that was about all she knew. Still, she had to try. The Hive were strange already, if they were doing something that was considered strange for them, then she needed to investigate it, or someone did, at least. With everything she’d already done for the City, crawling around in Hive tunnels for a few hours wouldn’t be the worst she'd endured.

She followed the sound of water down, listening to it trickle and drip along the walls. It was cold here, but the Hive’s tunnels were warmer than it was outside, likely for the breeding ground below. Without some source of heat, the eggs would freeze. Tessa could only assume that was the same heat that had melted the ice from above. She followed it down until she found the breeding ground by smell alone, the reek enough for her to sense it a long while before she actually reached it. Still, she’d been aiming for it. Damian had told her thrall often lived close to where the Hive were bred, protecting the young. She found her way to where they fed and lived and rolled in it like a dog, shedding some of her layers and rubbing them into the ground and into their scent, then rubbing her whole body in it as best she could. It might have been disgusting, but she’d rather live than be clean.

Once she was sure she smelled just like a thrall, she continued down.

It felt Darker here, but worse than normal. The energy was coming in waves, Darkness rolling over her whole body, delving into her as if it were searching her. She locked her Light deep in her core, so deep she’d have to actively connect to the Traveler and her Ghost in order to use it again, but she needed it to stay hidden. It was worth the risk. Still, it was making her skin crawl. The closer she got, the emptier the tunnels got, the less often she had to dodge into corners and cervices, the less often she heard a thrall scuttle by in an adjacent tunnel.

But there were also sounds she couldn’t explain. Chilling, dark sounds, from deep rubles to things that reminded her of moaning, to Hive shrieks and shrills. It made her skin crawl, and she had to fight off shudders, but goosebumps covered her body before long.

Ahead of her, light was beginning to bleed into the tunnels ahead, and the tunnel was starting to widen just slightly, not that it meant much though. She’d been on her hands and knees, her back touching the ceiling for hours now. Even her reinforced kneepads hadn’t been enough to ease the ache that had crept into them, and she’d had to stop more than once to give them a break.

Along with the light was another scent, like that of the breeding ground, but it was different, and more potent than the first smell had been. She could only keep crawling towards it, but something felt deeply wrong.

The waves of Darkness were coming more often now, too. Increasing in frequency the closer she got. Now it felt like there was one every few seconds, and they only got faster as she drew towards the opening before.

She had to squint against the light as she reached the opening, but she felt the contact lenses adjust to it quickly, and within a moment she was peering down at the strangest, most chilling thing she’d ever seen.

The tunnel in which she was crouched looked to be one of many that led into the room, the tunnels lining the ceiling and upper half of the walls, looking out over the large open chamber below her. In the center of the chamber was a large altar, a Hive brood mother laid out upon it, a massive Knight bent over her. Around them, three Wizards stood, chanting some sort of spell Tessa had never heard. Both the mother and the Knight were glowing a bright green, on the wall below Tessa were a web of eggs, glowing the same bright green. At the wall were three other witches, their hands raised to the eggs, feeding it a constant stream of their magic. The whole space was guarded, three darkblade Knights posted at the edge of the room, one at each of the three large tunnels that sat on the ground level of the space, each with a set of at least five knights beside them.

Tessa felt her blood go cold as she looked out over the scene. She’d never seen anything like this before, and she was very quickly beginning to believe she was in over her head. She’d known she wasn’t going to like what she found, but this? She’d be lucky to get out alive, and she hadn’t even been spotted. Yet.


End file.
